The College Board has nabbed another statewide contract. In its competition with ACT, the latest win is West Virginia.
West Virginia announced this week that all students will take the SAT in their junior year, starting in the spring of 2018. The move was prompted by state legislation that required the department of education to choose a college-entrance exam that would be given to all students.
The newest statewide contract brings the total count to 11 for the College Board, which has been trying hard to move into the business model that ACT has traditionally dominated (and still dominates).
ACT has 19 statewide contracts. That’s down one from last year, without Missouri. ACT spokesman Ed Colby said the 2017-18 school year is still in flux, as some states are still making testing decisions.
Most of the statewide SAT and ACT contracts require all students to take the college-entrance exam. A handful offer it for free to all students but don’t require them to take it.
A growing number of states—including West Virginia now—are also using the SAT or the ACT for accountability and for publicly reporting high school achievement. EdWeek’s 2017 assessment survey showed that more than half the states require students to take one of the exams, and a dozen use one of them as their official high school test.
College Board contracts:
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Maine
- Michigan
- New Hampshire
- Rhode Island
- West Virginia
ACT contracts:
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Hawaii
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Utah
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming